Friday, May 01, 2015

I’ve read a lot of snotty memes this week supporting
impunity. If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen them: the pictures of
black (always all black) men rioting with wording along the lines of “if you don’t
want to be killed by police, then all you have to do is not break the law.”

I’m sure the people sharing these memes are saints of the law who have never
texted while driving or gone 1 mph above 65 on the highway.

Not surprisingly, this was shown to be untrue. Today, the
Baltimore prosecutor announced that Freddie Gray didn’t actually commit any
crime, before he was arrested and died in police custody.

According to her, his very arrest was illegal in the first
place. And that's before his alleged murder.

Impunity has no place in a civilized society. As this week’s riots illustrated, when law enforcement acts
like the law doesn’t apply to them, it makes their job harder by giving license
to everyone else to act the same way.

About Me

The author is a freelance writer and journalist who lives in upstate New York. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Guinea (Conakry), West Africa, in the mid-90s. He is also fluent in French.
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L'auteur est un journaliste et écrivain qui habite le nord de l'Etat de New York. Il fut volontaire professeur de maths au sein du Corps de la Paix américain; il serva en République de Guinée (Conakry) en Afrique de l'Ouest dans les années 90.